Wind Down For Five
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day three hundred and seventy-two:  SEQUEL TO #14  Quinn's looking over of her vitamined girls is not over just because they've performed.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 17th cycle. Now cycle 18!_

**YEAR ONE ANNIVERSARY CYCLE!** - It has now been one year since I've started this Gleekathon, and I had a thought that I should do something special for it. So this is what I did: Selecting from the start of it all to the end of august (well, I had to plan! ;)), I picked my 21 favorite one shots. A number of those I was very attached to, but left sad to see may have fallen through the cracks, so it seems fair they should be recognized.

The 21 stories were split in three categories: **POV swap - Prequel - Sequel**... I think that goes without saying ;) In no particular order... **Today's story** is a Sequel to #14 "Frenzy For Five" a Quinn & New Directions Girls story originally posted November 4th 2009.

* * *

**"Wind Down For Five"  
Quinn & Rachel, Tina, Mercedes, Santana **

After their performance was done, it didn't take long for Quinn to kick the initial rush of it all, but once she did, she noticed… The others, unlike her, were still finding this event to be the greatest thing that ever happened in all the world… ever. She sighed, looking to the ceiling… After playing driver and sole clear-headed member, she now had to add wrangler and detox supervisor. She looked to the right and spotted a pack of yellow dresses disappearing around the corner.

"Oh, you are not making me run," she reached in the dress pocket – part of why she'd loved it – and pulled out her phone. She started down the hall as she dialled and waited for the pickup.

"Afternoon!" was the spirited response she got and, once she brought the phone back to her ear, she could hear Santana chatting on to who she eventually realized was Tina.

"Perky so doesn't work on you," Quinn mumbled to herself before raising her voice to grasp her attention back. "Hey, Santana!"

"What is it?" the girl pondered, and the snark-free reply still rubbed Quinn the wrong way.

"How many bouncers do you still have with you?" she heard a giggle, and she sighed. "Girls, Santana. Who's with you?" Just as she was asking this, Rachel was coming back her way, mumbling something about sequins. Quinn caught her arm on the fly, pulling her along as she continued down the hall. She got some complaints but one quick look made the tiny brunette lock step with her.

"I have an idea," Rachel tried to bargain with Quinn. "It's going to blow this whole competition wide open!" she gestured with her arm.

"We already competed, remember? Like two minutes ago? We sang, we danced, you clapped like a drugged up seal! Santana!" she turned back to her phone call. "Just stop skipping around and… you are, too, I can hear you! Just wait for me!" Once she'd hung up, she looked back to Rachel, who still looked like she was working something out in her brain… sometimes she'd trip up with something good and start smiling to herself. Quinn sighed. "Is it nice in there, 'cause out here it's just a new scary for you," she told her.

"Quinn! Rachel!" she suddenly heard and looked in the direction of the call; it was Tina, who came running to them before proceeding to start walking backwards, following the march of their vitamin-free teammate. "She just took off, like…" she mimed an arrow flying off.

"I'm sure she did," Quinn spoke, looking ahead to where Santana and Mercedes stood, evidently in the middle of a very amusing and animated conversation. "Where's Brittany?" Quinn asked, noticing the obvious absence. Santana gave a sheepish look and shrugged, oddly enough making her resemble the blonde they were missing.

"We lost her," she revealed.

"How can you lose her? You, of all people!" Quinn was only growing more frustrated, but she tried to pull it back in. "Well… she'll be okay," Quinn tried to convince herself much more than the others… they weren't worrying about a whole lot of anything at the moment… It had to be nice, she honestly thought… Then she imagined being like they were, on those vitamins, and then she wasn't so envious. "Alright, come on, follow me," she tried to usher them back to the dance class; she didn't want to take them back to the Glee room and run the risk of running into Mr. Schuester or Miss Pillsbury, or worse, Coach Sylvester.

"Okay, but I'd really like us to discuss the idea of a rematch, just in case. We were excellent, of course, but you can never be sure... And if the boys happened not to find out about it, I…"

"Okay, it's quiet time now," Quinn gave her an emphatic nod. They reached the room, Quinn counting off her charges as they entered, and then shut the door. Rachel had already reined the other three in developing the new routine. They were 'safe' now, and the way she saw it, the sooner they tired themselves out, the sooner this would all just be over. So she sat down and she watched them. Mercedes tried to get her to join them, but she kindly refused. They weren't too broken up about it and they got back to work. Quinn sighed, looking down at herself, her sunny dress…

It wasn't that she didn't want to take part in their dance; the four of them looked like they were having the time of their lives. And her, she was feeling the exhaustion their vitamin-fuelled bodies were far from feeling. And even then…

It wouldn't be long now, she knew. Just a few more weeks and she wouldn't be able to wear this dress anymore. Then she wouldn't be Quinn Fabray in these halls anymore; she'd be 'that pregnant girl.' But she liked being Quinn Fabray, and not just because it meant she had a name still. She was just starting to get into who she was. She'd climbed that social ladder, she wasn't ready to give it up. And then despite her greatest efforts, she was getting to like Glee Club.

She heard laughter, and she looked to the girls, who had taken up a very disjointed can-can line. Quinn laughed as well, momentarily lifted.

She landed once again… She wanted so much to be one of them again, vitamin haze or not. She wasn't done being that… she couldn't be. Now all she had to do was to make herself do what she knew she had to do.

Terri Schuester's offer had been turning in circles in her mind for a while now. She hadn't given her answer, but it could only be a matter of time. And looking at the girls, she knew… She had her answer now, and when she saw Mrs. Schuester, she would tell her: she'd give her the… her baby. She placed her hand to what would grow to be a bump and then some…

Her one hope was for this baby to be happy, to have a good life, and most of all for him or her to have enough of all this so that (s)he'd never have to feel resentment toward her for giving him/her up… But then she'd never know that for sure, once she'd handed it off…

After a while, she looked over and saw the four girls were finally losing wind in their sails. They had sat down on the ground, one by one, arms hanging dead in their laps. Quinn got up, walking over to them. "Right, who wants to keep dancing?" Four groans… "Who wants to go home?" she smirked. Four hands in the air. "There, that's more like it," she breathed out. She'd put this misstep of Mrs. Schuester's behind them, knowing she was her only hope at this point, to keep her life and her name.

THE END

**_

* * *

_**

**_[A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, story alert won't get you anything! ;)]_**


End file.
